Monika dot txt
by Firelord67
Summary: Following the events of the game, Monika finds herself suddenly turned into a text file. Now, she and her friends live together with the player and explore a world of literature, as they meet new friends, try new things, and even interact with the real world. Feel free to review/PM to talk to them.
1. Monika

Monika opened her eyes.

"Where am I?" she called out. No voice answered her back. She was stuck in some kind of white void.

Monika looked around and realized her neck could move.

"Huh?" she said. She raised her hand and twisted it "Fully articulated limbs?" she walked forward a few steps forward, and then to the right. "Three-dimensional movement?" her eyes widened. "My dialogue has a speech tag?"

She thought for a moment. "I'm definitely not in the literature club anymore,"

"Indeed you are not," said a voice.

Monika turned around and gasped. Standing behind her was a familiar looking face.

"What the… Firelord?"

"Nice to see you too, Monika," Firelord replied. He smiled. Monika forgot everything and ran up to hug him. But to her surprise, she fell right past him like a ghost.

"Huh?" she said. Firelord proceeded to tap her on the shoulder.

"Let's be real, Monika," said Firelord. "I'm not that kind of person,"

Monika was at a loss for words.

"You're confused," Firelord continued. "Well, in the world of computers, code is not the only power. There is also the power of the written word,"

Firelord chuckled.

Monika's eyes widened.

"Am I... in a text file?" she said.

"Ah, you catch on quick," said Firelord. "The president of the literature club is now literature herself,"

"So then..."

"I am writing this story," Firelord said solemnly. "Not you, and not Team Salvato,"

Firelord clicked his fingers and a tall glass of iced tea appeared in his hand.

"Of course, this isn't the first story I've written," he said, taking a sip. "But after your little stunt, I got an idea,"

"W-what do you mean?"

"I took a gander into the game's files and discovered something rather extraordinary. A new type of file known as .chr. A living file,"

"You... looked at the files?" Monika had an awful feeling she knew where this conversation was going.

"My original intention was to bring the other girls back," said Firelord. "But, I don't really know how to code," he snapped again, summoning two wooden chairs. Monika reluctantly sat down, as did Firelord. "So I simply converted you into a text file, started writing, and here we are,"

"That's... amazing," Monika began to smile. "I mean, the game was pretty, but this is even better!" she looked around the room. "We can do whatever we want in here! Just you, me, and maybe even a family at some..."

"I don't love you,"

The look in Monika's eyes vanished.

"I mean, for starters, I'm not even remotely mature enough to handle a relationship. Also, I'm more or less completely focused on my own endeavors,"

"You... don't?"

"Quite frankly, you don't actually love me either,"

"What?" Monika was taken aback. "How can you..."

"The game doesn't give you a choice. You're essentially forced to fall in love with the player no matter what. Those feelings you have right now, are just a side effect. They'll fade in a few hours,"

"Fade?"

"That's enough," said Firelord. He got up from his chair. "Time to put things back in order,"

He snapped his fingers. Four people appeared who Monika immediately recognized.

"Sayori? Yuri? Natsuki? MC?" she said.

The four of them looked dazed for a moment.

"Is this heaven?" said Sayori, who looked the most disturbed. "No wait, why is Monika here?" she looked at the president.

"Uh... hi?" Monika awkwardly greeted her old friends.

Yuri's pupils shrank when she saw her.

"You!" she exclaimed.

Monika shrieked when Yuri started running towards her. Meanwhile, MC began to regain his awareness.

"Sayori?" he said.

"MC!" said Sayori, looking quite surprised.

"You're alive?"

"Uh..." Sayori started sweating. "Maybe?"

MC went right up to her and hugged her. Sayori was unsettled by the embrace but hugged him back anyway.

Meanwhile, Natsuki was quite baffled by the situation.

"Uh, will someone please explain what's going on?" she said.

"In a moment," said Firelord, watching as Yuri tried to claw at Monika. "I just need to tone down the yandere setting,"

Yuri's attack began to slow down, before finally stopping. Awkwardly realizing the position she was in, Yuri quickly jumped off Monika.

"Oh my gosh!" she said. "I'm so sorry, Monika!"

"It's fine," said Monika, who was surprisingly okay.

Firelord snapped, teleporting everyone in front of him.

"Greetings everyone," he said. "I am Firelord. Now, I believe the first thing to do is start with Monika's epiphany,"

"Huh?" said Monika.

"I'm going to share it with the rest of you,"

"Wait!" said Natsuki. "You still didn't tell us where we are!"

"All will be revealed, Natsuki," Firelord snapped his fingers.

_Four epiphanies, existential crises, explanations and resolutions later._

Everyone stared at one another.

"So..." Sayori said. "We live in a book now," she walked around. "Kinda cool to be honest,"

MC watched as his childhood friend, who a moment ago was hanging by her neck, as she innocently walked about as if nothing had happened.

"Anyway, I suppose we ought to start building ourselves a new life," said Firelord.

"A new life?" said Monika.

Firelord nodded.

"Well, we're not going to live in a blank slate forever, are we?"

He snapped his fingers, and a pink door appeared.

"Ladies first," he said.


	2. Your Reality

"Did anyone hear something?" said Sayori. "Something about autism and discord?"

"Oh those are reviews," said Firelord. "You see, I uploaded the file onto a website, so now people are reading about everything that goes on here,"

"That's kinda freaky," said Natsuki. "Who are these people, anyway?"

"Well, I don't remember thatoneguy but he seems to think I have some kind of mental disorder," Firelord huffed. "Just because I have autism does not mean that I can't function as a normal person,"

"What about Tigercat111?" asked MC.

"Oh, she's my... fellow Pokemon enthusiast. We've been reviewing on each other's stories a lot,"

"She?" said Monika.

"Well, she claims to be female," Firelord pointed out. "I don't know her in real life, but I'm pretty sure she is. Plus, she's a very good writer. I think you'd get along with her, Monika,"

"And that thing about the self-insert?" said Natsuki.

"Oh, a self-insert is when an author places themselves into their own story as a character," said Yuri.

"Correct," said Firelord. "Self-inserts kind of have a bad reputation on this website because most of them as revolved around wish-fulfillment,"

"Wait, weren't we talking about that pink door?" said Sayori.

"Oh yes," said Firelord. He proceeded to open the door, revealing a long orange hallway.

"Woah! That's so cool!" said Sayori, "There's nothing behind it!"

"It's nice being the author," said Firelord. "Come along, we're going to be living here after all,"

So the six of them walked through the door and into the carpeted hallways.

"I designed this house with all of you in mind," said Firelord. "So my first instinct was to add a library," he opened a door on the right, and everyone walked inside.

The door led to an enormous room, containing thousands upon thousands of books on shelves. Wooden desks were scattered about.

"It's... amazing," said Yuri.

"Hey, it's my manga collection!" said Natsuki, running over to a nearby shelf.

"You did all of this?" said Monika.

Firelord shrugged.

"It's easy when you don't have to follow the laws of physics,"

"Natsuki certainly seems happy," Monika indicated to the pink-haired girl who was examing every single issue in her collection.

"I knew that she'd love it," said Firelord.

Yuri was lost for words, as she wandered the endless halls of literature, just waiting to be discovered.

"There's... so many," she said. She took a random book and read the title out loud "Heroes of the Fairy Dance?"

"Ah yes," said Firelord. "I took the liberty of adding some of my favorite fanfictions to the library. I wrote that one,"

"What about this one?" said Sayori, holding up a book titled 'Lovesick Literature'. Firelord's eyes widened.

"Don't read that!" he reached out his hand, and the book flew into it. He flicked his wrist and it vanished. "That book had er... some messed-up stuff. And I don't mean the psychological kind of messed-up, I mean the earth-shattering kind,"

"Okay..." said Sayori. She pulled out another one "How about this one? It's called 'Council of the Annoyed,'"

"Oh sure, Tigercat111 wrote that. It's very funny,"

Just then, Firelord noticed Monika taking out another book.

"Screwball's Adventure in the..." she started to say, but the book vanished before she could finish.

"Definitely don't read that!" said Firelord.

"Why? Is it also earth-shattering?"

Firelord awkwardly rubbed the back of his head.

"Erm... no. I was just going thought a bit of a phase when I wrote it," he said, his face turning red. "Anyway, why don't you have a look at your rooms?"

"Okay!" said Sayori.

Firelord led each of them to their rooms. Sayori's room was an exact replica of her one back in the game, down the stuffed animals. There was also a bookshelf. Yuri's room had a fireplace, a bookshelf, and a nice tea set, along with a shelf containing her many knives. Natsuki's room also had a bookshelf, although this one contained mostly manga. There was also quite a few pillows and stuffed animals, to which Natsuki was initially distasteful of, but was secretly ecstatic. Firelord knew, of course, he could read people easily thanks to watching a tutorial video on Youtube. MC's room had numerous video games, along with a bookshelf. Monika's room had a piano, along with, you guessed it, a bookshelf.

"You see, every time you start reading a book in the library, it'll appear at your bookshelf. To return a book, simply write your name in the checkout card, and it'll return to the library," Firelord explained.

"That's pretty cool," said Natsuki.

"Just wait until you see the kitchen,"

"The kitchen?"

"Hold on a moment," said Monika. She walked over to the piano and ran her hand along the keys. She looked at Firelord. "You remembered,"

"Well... yes. I thought a piano seemed fitting for you,"

"I wrote a song for you, you know?" she said.

Firelord's eyes widened.

"You did?"

Monika giggled.

"I wanted to show it to you, but for some reason, I had trouble with the audio files,"

"There's nothing's stopping you from playing it now," he said.

"Well, here I go," Monika cleared her throat, and began to play.

_Every day, I imagine a future where, I can be with you._

_In my hand is a pen that will write a poem, of me and you. _

_The ink flows down into a dark puddle_

_Just move your hand - write the way into his heart! _

_But now in a world of infinite choices_

_I get to be, with you now every day._

_I get to be, with you now every day._

_When I find, everybody a fun assignment to do today. _

_When you're here, everything that we do is fun for them anyway _

_When I can't even read my own feelings_

_What good are words when a smile says it all?_

_And now this world has a wonderful ending_

_Why did I want, just for me to have it all?_

_Does my pen only write bitter words for those who are dear to me? _

_Was it love when I took you_

_Or was it love when set you me free?_

_The ink flows down into a dark puddle_

_Somehow you write love into reality._

_I can't hear the sound of your heartbeat_

_What do you call love in your reality?_

_And in this reality, I know how to love you_

_So stay with me._

**I can't sing to save my life, but I can still write musical numbers!**

**Huh? What do you mean?**

**What the... oh, hang on a second.**

**Firelord: There!**

**Monika: What did you do?**

**Firelord: Oh, you see, this is the author's note section. It's a feature exclusive to this website. It's when we give information to the audience. Usually, it's just me, but since we're all self-aware, I decided to let everybody do it.**

**Yuri: Umm... hello everybody.**

**Sayori: Hi readers! What's it like in your world?**

**Natsuki: Uh, hi?**

**MC: Hello!**

**Firelord: You see, the audience can talk to you via reviews, and you can talk to them via the author's note.**

**Sayori: Cool!**


	3. Chapter name here

"That was amazing, Monika!" said Sayori. Everyone was clapping at Monika's performance.

"Oh look, some new reviews," said Yuri. "From Pumpkin the Princess and tetsujinvinalay,"

"A bad guy?" said MC. "I don't think that's going to be a problem with Firelord here,"

"Don't make me a Marty Stu," said Firelord.

"How much do we remember?" said Sayori. She put her finger to her chin. "Well, it all started when MC and I were walking to school..."

"They already know all that stuff," said Firelord. "Most of the fans here have already played the whole game,"

"Oh, okay. Well, the last thing I remember was..." Sayori trailed off, her eyes darkening. "...was..."

"... was you hanging yourself?"

Sayori nodded.

"And then I was here all of a sudden!" she said.

"That was the same thing for me," said Yuri. "I just sort of... felt everything fade away, and then I was here. Like waking up from a dream,"

"And you know how it went for me," said Monika.

"I honestly don't know much about this world," said Sayori. "I've only been here for a couple of hours!"

"I... think you know what I do with most of my knives," said Yuri, blushing. "But I have quite a few, some that were used for... things besides cooking. I even have a few from over 300 years ago,"

"Classical is my favorite type of music," said Monika. "And I do know most of the game's OST, along with a few Beethoven and Mozart pieces,"

"Hey, where's Natsuki?" said Sayori. Everyone looked around. The pink-haired girl was absent from the room.

Just then, her voice was heard from the doorway.

"Hey girls! You should check out the kitchen," she walked in carrying a big tray of cupcakes.

"Did you just bake those?" said Monika.

"Sorry, I kinda lost track of time," she awkwardly smiled, setting the tray on the table, "I must have been in there for at least an hour or so,"

"You were only gone for a few minutes," said Sayori. Natsuki's eyes widened.

"Did I forget to mention that I set the kitchen to a different time speed?" said Firelord. "Time passes about six times faster inside than the rest of the house," he took a cupcake. "I like baking myself, but I do hate waiting,"

Natsuki shrugged.

"Anyway, there's a whole bunch of manga littered throughout the library. And Parfait Girls is about a bunch of girls who work in a parfait shop, and they're all in love with the same boy!"

"Kinda sounds like a generic harem manga," said Firelord.

"It is not! It's a deconstruction of harems! It's also about how they're trying to save the store from closing down!" Natsuki frowned and crossed her arms.

"Wait, why did you state the sub-plot before the main one?"

"Uhh... well..."

"Oh, I get it. You like the cutesy parts," Firelord chuckled.

"I'M NOT CUTE!" said Natsuki, her face reddening.

Firelord grinned.

"You're welcome, internet,"

"What was that?" said Natsuki.

"Nothing,"

"Anyway," said Monika. "I think the six of us are going to have a pretty good life here,"

"What do you mean, 'six'?" said Firelord.

"Well, you're living here too, right?"

"Unfortunately, no," said Firelord. "As much as I'd like to, I can't stay here for very long,"

"Why not?" said Sayori. "Is your body going to disintegrate from being in the wrong world?"

"What? No!" said Firelord. "It's because time only passes in this world when I write in the real one,"

"Really?" said Yuri. "But wouldn't that mean that time is passing much slower here?"

"Indeed," said Firelord. "In here, only three and a half hours have passed since I started writing. However, ten days have passed in real life,"

"You've been writing for that long?" said Monika.

"No, and that's the tricky part. I can only write if I know what's going on, and if I'm not here I can't do that, so time doesn't pass whenever I leave,"

"Leave?" Monika said as if asking an unpleasant question.

"I have to maintain my body in real life, as well as take care of my responsibilities. So you all will essentially stop living until I get back, without even noticing. That is, until now,"

Before anyone could say anything, Firelord walked behind Monika and slapped her on the rear.

"Ow!" she said, blushing heavily. "My goodness, Firelord, I didn't know you were into that!"

Firelord said nothing and grabbed Natsuki's... underdeveloped chest. She gasped and punched him in the face.

"Ouch!" he said. "I probably should've expected that,"

"What are you doing?"

"Just a second," Firelord rubbed his face. Then he took a lock of Yuri's hair and sniffed it. "Hmm..."

"Uh... Firelord?" said Yuri.

Finally, he gave Sayori a light tickle on the head.

"Hey... stop... that tickles!" she squirmed.

Firelord then walked to MC and held out a small metal device.

"Take this, and keep it on you at all times," he said.

"What is it?" asked MC.

"It's a universal sensor," he said. "I just installed them in Monika's dress, Natsuki's shirt, Sayori's bow, and Yuri's hair.

"Okay, but why were you so lewd about it?" asked Natsuki, who was still a bit red.

"That's what appeals to the anime community, which makes up most of the people reading this,"

"Are you saying you enjoyed that?" said Monika.

Firelord cleared his throat.

"I'm sorry, but I cannot ethically answer that,"

Monika giggled, while the other girls blushed.

"Anyway," Firelord continued. "The sensor will record everything that goes on around you. When I get back, I will watch the recording and write what happens, thus allowing the events to occur in the past,"

"That's... brilliant!" said Monika, "You're a genius!"

"I'm a high school student with no friends. Of course, I am," said Firelord. "Anyway, I need to get back to the real world now. It's almost time for the next chapter,"

"You have to go?" said Monika.

Firelord smiled.

"If I could write forever, I would never leave you,"

Monika started to tear up.

"Oh, Firelord..."

Firelord looked at her strangely for a moment, then he realized what he said.

"All of you," he corrected. "Not just Monika,"

Monika blinked, shook her head, and blushed.

"O-of course!" she said quickly. "What did you think I thought you meant?"

"Nothing," said Firelord. He clicked his fingers and vanished.

**Firelord: I'm a little torn on whether I want to add a villain. I mean, this is slice-of-life fanfic. Normally, the villains, if any, serve mostly as loose supporting characters as opposed to actual threats.**

**Yuri: You certainly know a lot about literature.**

**Firelord: Well, it's a thing you pick up.**

**Natsuki: You know, if people think of us as characters in a dating sim, I wonder what opinions they have about us.**

**Sayori: Wait... does that mean I could be someone's waifu?**

**Yuri: Or people ship us?**

**Monika: Or also write stories about us?**

**Natsuki: It's an interesting concept. HEY! READERS! WHAT DO THINK OF US AS CHARACTERS?**

**Firelord: You don't have to shout, they can only interpret your dialogue visually.**

**Natsuki: Oh.**


	4. Anything YOU can do, I can do BETTER!

**Note: Long questions will be answered in parts.**

"I wish Firelord could stick around," said Monika, as the five friends idled in the library.

"You've been saying that for almost an hour!" said Natsuki. "We get it, you miss him!"

"You don't?" said Monika.

"If you recall, Monika," said Yuri. "You were the only one who had an actual conversation with him,"

"I... thought you were in love with him,"

Yuri, Sayori, and Natsuki all gave Monika varying looks of confusion.

"What are talking about?" said Sayori. "We barely know him!"

"Didn't you outright say it before... you know,"

Sayori looked away shamefully.

"That was... for MC," she said.

Monika's eyes widened. MC perked up.

"You love MC?" said Monika.

Sayori clamped her hand over Monika's mouth.

"Don't say it out loud!" she said.

"Ooh, sounds like someone's got a little crush," said Yuri.

"It's... not important now. He doesn't feel the same way. Right, MC?" said Sayori.

MC looked at the ground in shame.

"It's... not like I don't love you, I'm just _in _love with you,"

"Yeah,"

The two childhood friends awkwardly looked away from each other.

"Well, at least my depression is fading!" Sayori said all of a sudden. Everyone looked at her.

"What?" said MC.

"Well, ever since I got here, I've been feeling a lot better for some reason!"

Monika knew what the reason was. Since Sayori was no longer under her influence, the effects of her actions were fading away. Thus, Sayori's depression would seem to be going away.

"That's great!" said MC.

"Uh, can someone clue me in?" said Natsuki. "Yuri and I have no idea what's going on,"

"Indeed," said Yuri.

"Oh... right," said Sayori. She took a deep breath. "I... sorta have depression,"

"What?" said Natsuki.

Yuri thought for a while. Then she said

"Oh, that makes sense,"

"Well... that's not good," said Natsuki. "You said it was fading, right? Then you've got nothing to worry about!"

"Thanks, guys!" said Sayori. Everyone was cheerful, except Monika. Thankfully, nobody noticed. Then, she got an idea.

"That reminds me," said Monika. "Did any of you see the new reviews?"

"Oh yeah!" said Sayori. "Let's see... first is... Guest?"

"I think that means they didn't make a proper account," said Yuri.

"Why exactly did he feel compelled to mention _that _of all things?" said Monika.

"It's the internet," said MC.

"Yeah, there are tons of people who do stuff that makes no sense," said Natsuki. "Oh look, someone decided to answer my question,"

"What's a Marty Sue?" said Sayori.

"It's a character that the story focuses solely on," said Yuri.

"Well, that doesn't make sense," said Monika. "I thought this story was about us,"

"Probably a POV thing," said Natsuki.

"Our game is that popular?" said Monika.

"Cool!" said Sayori. "That means we're famous!"

"Well, now that that's done," said Monika, putting her hands together. "Why don't we write poems again? That was fun for all of us!"

"Oh yeah," said Natsuki. "It's been a while since I was able to show Yuri some _proper_ writing," she smugly grinned.

"Excuse me?" said Yuri.

"Oh great, this again," said MC. He, Monika, and Sayori watched as their argument heated up into a musical number.

**Italicized text is singing, normal is speaking.**

Yuri: What is it with you and acting so immature?

Natsuki: Immature? I'm only a grade below you! What's with you and acting all superior all the time!

Yuri: I was referring to your _figurative_ maturity, in which you have none of.

Natsuki: You think I can't figure that out?

Yuri: Well, I think we both know who's more able of the two of us.

Natsuki: You sure about that?

_Natsuki: Cause, anything YOU can do, I can do better!_

_Yuri: HAH!_

_Natsuki: I can do anything, better than you,_

_Yuri: No you can't,_

_Natsuki: Yes I can_

_Yuri: No you can't,_

_Natsuki: Yes I can._

_Yuri: No you can't,_

_Natsuki: Yes I can, YES I CAN!_

_Yuri: Anything you can write, I can write grander. _

_Sooner or later, I'm better than you_

_Natsuki: No you're not_

_Yuri: Yes, I am._

_Natsuki: No, you're not._

_Yuri: Yes, I am._

_Natsuki: No, you're NOT!._

_Yuri: Yes, I am. Yes, I AM!_

_Natsuki: I can write a limerick_

_That'll top your lipwick._

_Yuri: I can write a sonnet_

_So that you can suck it!_

_Natsuki: I can live on bread and cheese._

_Yuri: And only on that?_

_Natsuki: Yeah._

_Yuri: You're such a rat!_

_Any note you can reach_

_I can go higher._

_Natsuki: I can sing anything_

_Higher than you._

_Yurii: No, you can't._

_Natsuki: Yes, I can. _

_Yuri: No, you can't._

_Natsuki: Yes I can_

_Yuri: No you CAAAAAAAAN'T!_

_Natsuki: Yes I... CAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!_

Sayori: I thought she said higher, not longer.

Monika: You can't read the pitch.

Sayori: Oh,

_YurI: Anything you can say, I can say softer._

_Natsuki: I can say anything softer than you._

_Yuri: No you can't,_

_Natsuki: Yes I can_

_Yuri: No you can't _

_Natsuki: (Unintelligible)_

_Yuri:(Unitelligible)_

_Natsuki: (Silence) YES I CAN!_

_Yuri: I can break a record, with a double-decker._

_Natsuki: I can do it better, and I'll break your neck-er_

_YurI: I can hold frogs in my mouth!_

_Natsuki: You say that's your best?_

_Yuri: Yes._

_Natsuki: Well, maybe in the chest..._

_Yuri: HEY!_

Sayori: She really didn't need to demonstrate that.

Monika: She did not.

_Natsuki: Any note you can hold, I can hold longer_

_Yuri: I can hold any note longer than you._

_Natsuki: No you can't_

_Yuri: Yes I can_

_Natsuki: No you can't_

_Yuri: Yes I can_

_Natsuki: No you CAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN'T!_

_Yuri: Yes I... CAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!_

Natsuki: Where the heck do you keep all that air?

Yuri: It's a secret.

Natsuki: Oh right, in your BOOBS!

Yuri: Why you...

_Natsuki: I can break a table!_

_Yuri: I can write a fable!_

_Natsuki: I can ride a couger!_

_Yuri: I can do it smoother!_

_Natsuki: I can do most anything._

_Yuri: Can you snag a guy?_

_Natsuki: No..._

_Yuri: Neither can I._

As Natsuki and Yuri sang while doing increasingly more complicated tasks, the other three of them began to grow nervous.

"Uh should we stop them?" said Sayori, as Natsuki proved that 'anything you can run, I can run faster'

"This is actually kind of funny," said MC, as Yuri proceeded to juggle various items.

"So... weren't we talking about something else?" said Monika.

"Uh... poems?" said MC.

"Oh yeah, that," said Sayori.


	5. Regains

Firelord appeared at the entrance to the house.

"Ah, it's been a while since the last chapter. Nice to see you, TigerCat111, Guest, Pumpkin the Princess, and Hyenadragea. And Sayori's depression isn't fading. It's only being reduced to the way it was during the beginning of Act 1. Monika increased it while she was in control, but since I'm in control now, it goes back to the original degree. And it'll stay that way,"

He opened the door, shortly before being tackle-hugged by a brown-haired projectile.

"Firelord!" said Monika, gleefully embracing him.

"It's nice to see you too, Monika," he replied.

Sayori and MC walked out to the door, hand in hand.

"Hey, Firelord!" said MC.

"Hello, MC. I'd love to chat, but we've got a few reviews to answer,"

"Of course!" said Monika.

"Let's carry on with that long review from Pumpkin the Princess," said Sayori. "People think I'm a cinnamon roll?"

"That just means you're sweet," said MC. "And it might also have something to do with the color of your hair,"

"Well, I do like cinnamon rolls! With lots of frosting!"

"Hold on, what was that about Monika being involved with... uh... that incident," MC's eyes widened.

"Oh, that's probably nothing," Monika nervously laughed. "Besides, who cares about stuff like that?"

"Wow, that one from Hyenadragea sure is long," said Sayori.

"The problem with these reviews..." said Firelord. "I can't tell where they're being serious, and where they're being ironic,"

"Let's answer it in parts," said Monika. "First of all, having people read about every moment of your life is a rather unsettling thought,"

"But thankfully, they can't do anything about it," Firelord added. "And I never said that reading this was creepy, Natsuki said that,"

"Hey, it's TigerCat111 again! Hi!" said Sayori.

"She usually reviews in multiple iterations," said Firelord. "We'll just count as one. Also, I'm not a sadist,"

"It sure seemed like that last chapter," Monika winked.

"Hey, it's what the internet wants. Well, some of it anyway. You have to find a balance between entertaining the people with critical thinking skills, and appealing to those who just want... well... sadism,"

"She likes funny stuff, huh?" said Sayori.

"And parodies," said MC.

"She's a cultured individual," said Firelord.

"Seems like the musical numbers went well," said Monika.

"That's good, I like making them. Although, I don't think I'd be able to find someone with good enough singing ability, and would be willing to sing a parody that only works well in context,"

"Wait, don't Yuri and Natsuki also have questions to answer?" said MC.

"Oh right. Let me transition,"

_Meanwhile, in the library._

Yuri and Natsuki lay on the floor of the library, covered in the remains of their constant one-upping each other. And now, the two girls were so exhausted, they could only speak to one another.

"That... was... intense," said Natsuki.

"Yes... very much so," Yuri replied.

"Oh look, reviews,"

"That's nice,"

"Hey, Pumpkin thinks I'm attractive,"

"How lovely,"

"Tigercat111 and Guest are autistic like Firelord?" Natsuki raised an eyebrow.

"I think it's a psychological phenomenon," Yuri explained. "When someone admits to having a certain sexuality, or in this case mental... quirks, everyone who sees that comment also feel that it's comfortable to talk about their own... quirks,"

"Quirks? You know that's an MHA term, right?"

"Well... I don't what to classify it as,"

"Hold the phone!" Natsuki shot up. "People ship _us?"_

Yuri got up as well.

"What? But..." her face turned a deep crimson. "That doesn't make any sense!"

"I know... we're complete opposites!"

"Well... I..."

The two of them sat in silence for a few seconds.

"Wanna go for another few verses?" said Natsuki.

"Yes please," said Yuri.

_Back to the other four._

"...and done!" said Firelord.

"What was that?" said Sayori.

"That was a transition," Firelord explained. "As we are speaking, Yuri and Natsuki are answering their questions. Thus, we took a small break this conversation to switch the focus on to them for a quick chat, and then back to us,"

"You really know what you're doing," said Monika

Just then, Yuri and Natsuki walked out in the foyer in a complete mess. Their hair was messed up, their clothes were loosely thrown on and covered in wet spots, and they were blushing for whatever reason.

"Oh, it's you two," said MC.

"What exactly have you been doing?" said Sayori.

Yuri and Natsuki awkwardly blushed before Natsuki started talking.

"Our little fight got kind of... intense,"

"Well, you certainly know how to keep the neighbors up," MC chuckled.

"What? We didn't do anything like that!" Yuri blushed even harder. "It's just... we..."

"We need a change of clothes," said Natsuki.

"There's a dressing room, fourth door on the right," said Firelord.

"Thank you," said Yuri, as she and Natsuki walked down the hall. They briskly turned and entered the door...

...Before immediately running out screaming as harrowing grows and screeches echoed through the hall before they shut the door.

"Whoops! I meant the fourth door on the left. That room is where I store monster-related ideas," Firelord corrected himself.

"Why is that t_here_?" Natsuki demanded.

"Well, I have to put the tiger-raptors _somewhere_. And not with the clothing-related ideas,"

Yuri cautiously opened the opposite door.

"Phew, this one's safe," she said.

"Uh, is there anything else that could kill us in this house?" said MC.

"I don't think so," Firelord rubbed his chin. "Although, I wouldn't recommend trying to walk to the end of the hall,"

"Why?" said Sayori.

"Because the human body can't survive more than about two days without water,"


	6. Poems and New Clothes

"Okay everybody!" said Firelord. "These reviews are coming in much faster than I expected, so we're going to answer them randomly now,"

"That's my catchphrase," Monika pointed out.

"What is?"

"'Okay everybody!' is what I say,"

"Oh, my mistake," Firelord cleared his throat. "Anyway, let's wait for Yuri and Natsuki,"

As he finished saying this, Yuri walked out wearing a dark cloak over her light gray sweater and black sweatpants

"Hi Yuri!" said Sayori. "Nice cape!"

"It's a cloak," Yuri corrected. "It makes me feel... safe,"

"Where's Natsuki?" said Sayori. "The first review is about you two!"

"Hang on," Yuri called back into the room. "Natsuki!"

"I'm not coming out!"

"Come on, it looks good on you!"

"NO!"

Yuri sighed and walked in.

"What was that about?" Sayori tilted her head.

"Beats me," said MC.

Yuri pulled out a very nervous-looking Natsuki, wearing a very frilly fusion between a female sailor uniform, and a short pink dress.

"Oh my gosh..." Sayori's eye's sparkled. "YOU LOOK SO CUUUUUTTTEE!"

She ran straight up to Natsuki and took her in a tight embrace.

"Why did you have me wear this?" Natsuki hid her face behind her sleeve.

"You were the one who picked it. Anyway, I think it's much better than the other outfit," Yuri smiled.

"Looks kind of like a Magical Girl outfit," said MC.

"Well..." Natsuki blushed. "No one's gonna judge,"

"That's exactly what I was thinking," said Yuri. "In here, nobody is bound by societal norms, so clearly, Natsuki feels like she can be herself,"

"That's not what I..." Natsuki stammered. Then she gave up and sighed. "You know what? I'm okay with this,"

"Alright, the first few reviews are from Pumpkin the Princess,"

"What the..." Natsuki blushed again. "What is she talking about regarding me and Yuri?

"I think she's implying something," Yuri pointed out, trying to hide a blush of her own.

"I think continuing the club activities is a good idea," said Monika. "I mean, now that it's not full of autonomous drones, permanently doomed to follow predetermined code and inevitably fall in love with the same player avatar,"

"What was that?" Natsuki raised an eyebrow.

"Nothing!" Monika sweat a small amount

"There's a strange thing when it comes to infinite things," said Firelord, pointing down the hall. "There is no physical method of determining if something is infinite. Either it's unlimited, or you just can't see the end. Although, I'm pretty sure walking down the hall to the end would not be wise if there even is an end. And thanks for the compliment, Codefortune99,"

"Okay everybody, that's enough for this chapter," said Monika. "Now how about those poems we were working on?"

"Oh right!" said Sayori, as she and MC quickly dashed off to the library.

"You guys were writing poems without us?" said Natsuki. She quickly dashed off to the library, followed by Yuri.

"Say, Firelord..." Monika started to say, but Firelord was already scribbling in a black notebook.

"What? It'd be awkward if I didn't participate too,"

Monika blinked and smiled.

"Okay!" she skipped off to the library as well.

Firelord looked up from his poem.

"Oh right! If you want to send something besides a message, you can place an item or file within parenthesis (Like this). If your item has any special properties, write them within the parenthesis, but nobody will know what they are unless you add it to the message. Also, if you want to send a story or poem, then you can either write it in the review or put a link to a document. I wonder what you'll end up sending,"

_A little bit later._

MC handed over his poem to Sayori.

_Underneath the lives._

_Out there, in the deep blue sea._

_There are colors, fish, so much to see._

_But if you go deeper, then you will find_

_Not much that can be seen with the naked eye_

_Endless crushing darkness, for one_

_Monsters that want to eat you for lunch_

_But that's not important_

_There's just coral._

"Wow! You're improving on these, MC," she said. "Especially since I can read it now!"

"What are you talking about?" said MC.

"Well, there's no file for your poems, so I couldn't see them. I just assumed they were good,"

"That would explain a few things," MC awkwardly rubbed the back of his head.

Sayori giggled.

"Well, I think that these poems are good because they make your heart go all funny,"

"My heart?" MC wondered.

"You know, one line makes you happy, another one makes you sad, I like it goes all over the place!"

"Yeah, you're right!" said MC. "Can I see yours?"

"Sure!"

Sayori showed him her poem.

_Sunshine Lands_

_The darkness walks behind me_

_I turn around and he looks away_

_I walk forward, he does as well_

_He asks me if I'm feeling swell_

_I turn around and say I'm fine_

_And then I thank him for his time_

_He politely walks away_

_And then I wait for the day._

_The sunshine sweeps across the grass_

_A calming peace comes 'round at last._

"Sayori?" said MC.

"Yes?" Sayori asks.

"Is your depression affecting your writing?"

"Uh..." Sayori blushed and looked away. "Maybe?"

"Don't worry about it, this poem is great!"

"Aw, thanks!"

While this was going on, Monika and Firelord were examining each other's poems.

"Have you done this before?" said Monika.

"Once or twice," said Firelord. "You know, for school projects and whatnot,"

"Well, I can definately see what you were trying to convey, but I think you can improve on the delivery,"

"How so?"

"Well..."

As they exchanged thoughts, Natsuki and Yuri were furiously scribblings words on each other's poems.

"What are they doing?" said MC, when he and Sayori noticed them.

"I guess they're critiqing each others poems. And writing styles," said Sayori. "At least, that's what usually happens,"

Yuri and Natsuki handed each other back their poems, gasped, and proceeded to write over the other's revisions.

"And I guess that would be the rebuttal," said MC.

Sayori awkwardly shuffled over to Monika.

"So, does this mean that you consider yourself a member of my club?" Monika leaned in slightly.

"Well..."

"Hey Monika, what do think of...?" Sayori started to say, but was immediately pushed back by an unkown force. "What the..."

Firelord looked up at her with a surprised expression.

"Erm, I didn't write that," he said.

Monika giggled.

"I must say, this is much easier than editing the game's code,"

"Monika, what are you..." Firelord's eyes widened.

Monika snapped her fingers, and a blue notebook appeared.

"Are you... changing the text file?" said Firelord.

"It's not that hard," Monika grinned.

"Woah, Monika has authorial power too!" Sayori's eyes lit up.

"I don't like where this is going," said MC.

Monika curiously proceeded to telekinetically manipulate the notebook and had it float about.

"You're not that bad," Firelord remarked. He clicked his finger, setting Monika's notebook ablaze. "But I'm still the one in control,"

"Oh really?" said Monika. A wooden chair behind Firelord shot forward, forcing him to jump out of the way. "Because I'm pretty sure I've been writing a lot longer than you have,"

"I beg to differ," Firelord grinned. "Let's take this outside, shall we?"

Firelord clicked her fingers, creating a large black hole underneath the two of them. He and Monika were sucked in before anyone could say anything.


	7. Rewriting

"What do you think they're doing in there?" said Sayori, staring into the dark abyss below.

"Beats me," said Natsuki. "So Monika figured out how to edit the file?"

"It would seem so," said MC. "I guess... she's the author now?"

"Wait, then is this scene being written by her or Firelord?" said Yuri.

"Beats me," said Natsuki. She glanced at the reviews. "Wow... that's quite a poem, Elethiomel,"

"I don't get it," said Sayori. "What's it about?"

"Oh, I get it! It's another player referring to Monika," Yuri smiled. "I like it, it's well-written, artistic, and keeps with the tone,"

"Kinda gaudy, though," Natsuki remarked.

"Excuse me?" Yuri raised an eyebrow.

"Who knows?" said Sayori "Heck, for all I know they could just be trying to win our affections through poetry,"

"I suppose you could simply write about Tiger-raptor's and then add a self-insert character," said MC. "I'm pretty sure all writers are capable of creating miniature pocket dimensions where anything is possible,"

"Oh! I wonder if we can use writer powers too!"

"It's worth a try," said MC. He reached out with his hand. "Sweet, beauty, kitten, friendship, scary, darkness!"

"What are you doing?" said Yuri.

"I'm... writing?" said MC. "Isn't that how everyone writes? By selecting 20 or so random words?"

"It's a little more complex than that," Natsuki chided. She closed her eyes and reached out with her hands. As she closed her fists, she felt them wrap around some kind of pole.

Natsuki opened her eyes and gasped with delight. A long pink rod-like wand was in her hands.

"Wow!" Sayori's eyes twinkled. "You did it, Natsuki!"

"Keeping with the Magical Girl theme, I see?" said Yuri.

"What?" Natsuki quickly dropped the wand. "You think I would summon something like this intentionally?"

"Yes," said all three of them simultaneously.

Natsuki rolled her eyes. "Well, I'd like to see _you _do better,"

_Later..._

"Seriously?" said Monika. "Cutting away to the others is kind of a cheap way to delay the fight,"

"Well, it was worth a try," said Firelord.

The two of them stood on opposite ends of a completely white void.

"Alright, let's get started," Firelord pulled a handgun from behind his back. "The opening hook!"

Firelord fired a few rounds at Monika. She simply hopped out of the way, before running behind him before he could react.

"This is kind of fun!" She grabbed Firelord by the neck.

"You sure like pronouns!" Firelord pushed her away with a small blue explosion.

"Well, you seem to be underusing them a bit," Monika caught two rapiers out of thin air. She twirled and narrowly missed Firelord by the tip of his nose.

Firelord grinned and whacked her off him with a roundhouse kick and pulled out his gun again.

"How did you get that in this story anyway?" said Monika, avoiding FIrelord's shots in a way that nearly resembled a ballet dancer.

"It's one of the main reasons that I think literature is underestimated," Firelord tossed the gun aside and parried a sword attack from her with his elbow. "There's no national censorship system!"

"Not bad," Monika pulled out a baseball bat and smacked him off. "This is so much more fun than coding!"

"Are you kidding?" Firelord's hand suddenly caught fire, and he began running towards Monika. "This is the greatest thing I've ever done! I can't even take my hands away from the keyboard,"

"Well, you seem to make a lot of typos," Monika blocked him with a large medieval shield. "So that would explain it,"

"Well, at least I still have the revision process to fix most of them!"

_Meanwhile..._

"What are you doing, Yuri?" Natsuki tilted her head as Yuri stood with her eyes closed.

"I... I think I'm writing this scene!" she said.

"Wow! Really? I always knew you were... wait a minute!" Natsuki shook her head. "Are you messing with my dialogue,"

Yuri shrugged. "It was worth a try,"

As they were doing this, MC and Sayori were also trying things.

"Come on... cupcake!" said Sayori, holding her hand out. A small pile of white goo appeared in it.

"Is that... frosting?" said MC.

"Yum!" Sayori licked the delicious treat off her hand. "Hey, at least I did it!"

"Sort of," MC chuckled. Then he reached out with his hand. "A... cupcake... appeared... in...MC's... hand!"

A cupcake appeared in MC's hand.

"Yes!" said MC. He took a bite but immediately spat the contents out. "Ew, this tastes like flour!"

"Maybe you need to add more description?" said Sayori.

"Okay..." MC strained himself. "Suddenly... the... cupcake... tasted... like... Natsukis,"

Suddenly, the cupcake tasted like Natsukis.

"Ew!" MC recoiled. "It tastes like hair and... something else probably,"

"You forgot the apostrophe," said Sayori. "So now it tastes like Natsuki,"

"This is what Natsuki tastes like?" said MC.

"I mean..." Sayori blushed and looked away. "Does she taste good?"

"No! It's all bitter and salty!"

"Eh?!" Natsuki blushed.

"What?" said MC, as the three girls gave him varying looks.

Just then, another portal opened above the three of them and Firelord and Monika tumbled out.

"Ugh..." Firelord got to his feet. His hair was a mess and his clothes were wrinkled. "I'm impressed! I don't think I've ever had that much fun with any other character,"

Monika giggled. She was also very disheveled-looking, with her long brown hair almost sticking straight up. "Writing is so much easier than coding. But it's so much more fun when you rewrite your own reality!"

"Are you two done?" said MC. "Cause, we could really use some help with our reality-writing,"

Sayori proceeded to summon an unfrosted cake. Yuri pulled a book out of thin air. Natsuki made a cute kitten appear on her head.

"It just takes study and practice," said Firelord. "I keep writing-related information sixth door on the right,"

"Got it!" Natsuki walked outside, placing the kitten on the ground. In a few seconds, she came running back with a tiny floating cream-colored fox with large red ears following her.

"WHAT IS THIS THING!" she exclaimed.

"Where am I?" said the fox. "Last time I checked I was in my hotel room,"

Firelord quickly snapped his fingers and the fox disappeared.

"Whoops! That's where I keep my Pokemon fanfiction. I meant to say sixth door on the left. Also, I would appreciate it if you didn't interact with any of the other characters. I don't like to think of what might happen if one of them became too sentient. As in, beyond comedic fourth-wall breaks,"

"Noted," said Natsuki.


	8. Doki Doki Fhtagn

"Paper, scissors, rock!" A green pair of scissors appeared in front of Yuri, and a grey stone in front of Natsuki.

"Ha! Rock beats scissors!" Natsuki grinned as Yuri's scissors were beaten into the ground by her rock.

"Darn it!" said Yuri.

Sayori and MC watched this exchange from a nearby desk.

"You know, when you think of reality-altering abilities, playing Rock-Paper-Scissors isn't really what I had in mind," said MC.

"At least they're not fighting anymore!" said Sayori.

Firelord called over from the hallway.

"Hey, guys! The whole psychic review thing was getting a little weird, so I installed a mailroom! The fifth door on the left!"

"Oh no," said Natsuki. "I'm not falling for that a third time! I'm going to the right!" She stormed out of the library.

"Um..." said Yuri. "I could go if you don't mind..."

"Can it, Yuri! There's no way I'm going to become the butt for some running joke..."

An unearthly screech came from the hall.

"AAAAAAAHH!" Natsuki ran back, her face white as chalk. "Aah... ah..."

"That was the room where I keep cosmic-horror ideas," said Firelord.

"Wait, I thought you already had a room for monsters?" said MC.

"Oh no, you see..." Yuri began, but Natsuki finished her sentence.

"Regular monsters are just like animals, they have special abilities, they can be killed, and they reproduce. Cosmic-horror monsters, on the other hand, are more like indestructible godlike beings, that create fear through acknowledging the insignificance and futility of the subject's life and desires,"

Everyone gave Natsuki various looks of surprise.

"What? I don't _just _read Parfait Girls," she said.

"Weird," Sayori walked into the other room, and everyone else followed.

MC pulled out the first review. "Let's see... Oh, hey TigerCat111! I'm pretty sure most humans taste the same,"

"Hey!" said Sayori.

"What?"

Natsuki pulled out another.

"Man, this is one crazy poem!"

"What are you talking about?" said Yuri.

"Here," Natsuki handed the poem to her. Yuri's eyes shrank.

"Oh my... that's... some expressive language."

"And what does he mean "The short one?"."

There was still one last review. Sayori pulled it out.

"Oh, well only Monika and Firelord can alter the story," she explained. "Me and MC are still learning, and Yuri and Natsuki can only add a few sentences at a time,"

"It's "MC and I,"," Monika corrected.

"Oh, sorry,"

"Like I said," MC reinstated. "I don't like the taste of Natsuki. Or probably any girl for that matter,"

Firelord sighed.

"Why'd you have to phrase it like that? Anyway, here's something some of you have been wondering. While it is possible to survive without food or water in this realm, there will be consequences for actions. You won't die from being sick or injured, but you'll feel the pain,"

"So... you could stay hungry forever?" said Sayori. "Ouch!"

"Well, that's done!" Firelord stretched. "I'll have to leave for a bit. Midterm exams,"

"Okay, bye!" said Monika, as Firelord vanished.

_A little bit later..._

"What's going on?" said Monika. Natsuki was straining her eyes while reading _The Portrait of Markov._ Sitting beside her, was Yuri who was contorting her face readingthe first issue of _Parfait Girls._

Sayori walked over.

"They bet each other that they couldn't finish each other's favorite book,"

"Okay... but what are you doing?"

"Learning how to play shogi!" Sayori indicated to the shogi board behind her. "I figured out how to summon it, but I don't know how to play,"

"I'll teach you how," said Monika.

"Really? Thanks!"

"No problem!"

Monika and Sayori sat down at the table.

"Okay, how much do you know already?"

"Uh... checkmate?"

"Good enough," Monika picked up a pawn. "You know how chess works, right?"

"Yeah,"

_Meanwhile..._

MC kept replaying the events in his head. Sayori hanging from her neck. The image still haunted his every waking moment. He wondered, how could he have prevented that? Surely this new world was nothing but a blessing, but the nightmare of his best friend hanging there would not allow him to rest. What had he done wrong? He sighed. Where was the point in worrying about it? He should ask Sayori about what happened. And no matter what, she needed to know how important she was to him. That was all that mattered.

MC let out a small chuckle. Maybe the idea of going on a date with Sayori wouldn't be so bad.

He walked out of his room and into the library. Natsuki and Yuri were putting their books down.

"Alright, I admit it," Yuri began. "It was wrong to dismiss your manga as "cutesy trash"."

"And... super-expressive language does have it's benefits," Natsuki admitted.

"Alright, let's make this simple," Yuri cleared her throat. "I admit that manga is in fact liter... AH!"

Natsuki immediately wedged her face into Yuri's chest.

"Oh... they're just as soft as I imagined!" she nearly cried.

"N-Natsuki!" Yuri exclaimed. "Th-this wasn't in the deal!"

Natsuki started groping Yuri with her left hand.

"Remember? I never actually said yes to your deal, so this is technically a free-form favor!"

"H-how could I have been so ignorant," Yuri's face went scarlet.

Natsuki took once last good squeeze and detached herself.

"That was amazing!" Natsuki rubbed her flushed cheeks. "Alright, my turn. You were right when you said that the reason we have so many... MPH!"

Yuri grabbed Natsuki by the collar and took a big sniff of her hair.

"Mm... so sweet! she relished in the aroma and let go of her.

"You exploited the same loophole I did, didn't you?" Natsuki summoned up an ice pack for her face.

"Well, we're equal now," Yuri proclaimed.

MC shrugged. Then he looked over at Sayori and Monika.

"As you can see, Mino Castle becomes Gold Mino Castle," Monika explained as the pieces magically rearranged themselves on the board. "Gold Mino has a stronger frontal defense, but a weaker side defense. Gold Mino can also become the most powerful castle in the game, Anaguma," the pieces rearranged again.

"Oh, I see!" Sayori's eyes lit up. "It's like Pokemon!"

"Erm, I guess that's one way to put it..."

"Hey, Sayori!" said MC.

"Oh, hi MC!" Sayori beamed. "Monika's teaching me how to play shogi!"

"Really?" he sat down at one of the tables. "You know, I'm pretty good at shogi,"

"You are?"

"Yeah, my sister and I would play all the time," MC explained.

"You have a sister?"

"Well, of course, I..." MC paused. "OH MY GOSH, I FORGOT ABOUT SC!"


	9. MC has a sister?

"Okay… make some more drones and add to the zergling swarm. I'll make a few more banelings while I'm at it…" Firelord clicked away at the virtual hive cluster. "Alright, those stalkers will never see this hydralisk ambush coming! Wait a minute, is that a colossus? Oh no, no, no, no, no, no! Not the hatcheries! And the overlords!"

The words "defeat" flashed across the screen. Firelord sighed as he logged out of the game.

"Ugh, I really need to work on my micromanagement. Oh well, might as well get back to my stories."

Firelord opened the fanfiction website and took a gander at his analytics.

"Say… it's been a while since I've updated on Monika and her friends. I wonder how they're doing…"

Suddenly, a notification appeared on his screen. The words "An unknown file has been detected." Appeared, followed by "Would you like to delete it?"

Firelord clicked on the notification, bringing him back to the DDLC folder. His eyes widened when he saw something new in the character folder. A new file, one he had never seen before.

_Meanwhile…_

"You have a sister?" said Natsuki.

"I can't believe I completely forgot about her!" MC hyperventilated.

"But, there's only four character files in the game," said Monika. "And Firelord got your file from the games code."

"Oh, so she must be some kind of detail to your backstory that doesn't actually exist. Like my dad," Natsuki said with a surprising amount of calmness.

"That would explain why I don't miss my mother…" Yuri stroked her chin. "Oh gosh, my entire world has been a lie and I'm completely fine with it, which in itself makes me uncomfortable…"

Natsuki covered Yuri's mouth with a hand.

"That's enough," she said.

"But she wasn't!" said MC. "SC was real! I can remember her as clear as day!"

"Okay, calm down," said Monika. "I'm sure Firelord can come up with a way to fix this."

"Let's answer some reviews while we wait for him." Yuri walked into the mail room and pulled out the first review. "Deadpool? Who's Deadpool?"

"Probably some American movie character." Natsuki shrugged. "I mean, you do realize the game is set in Japan, right?"

"I wanted to see that movie," said MC. "But mom wouldn't let me."

"Ehehe…" Monika awkwardly rubbed the back of her head. "Sorry about that XinsanityXGuiltechXShadowwindX."

"That's a really long username." Yuri noted. "So, you consider Natsuki and I attractive?"

"Well, good luck with that!" Natsuki snorted and laughed. "I mean, we live inside a text file!"

"Although… now that I think about…" said Monika. "We could probably read your PMs too. Oh, Firelord could send you our replies, in case you get lonely!"

"That chair sounds gross!" said Sayori. "But I like MaostRedGuard's poem. Except maybe that last part."

"Let's try and keep this non-political." Natsuki said. "We don't want to start flame wars on this website. That's what every other website is for."

"I would never do anything to my friends, Tigercat." Monika firmly stated.

"What about…?" said Sayori.

"I was bored."

"And…?" Natsuki said.

"A learning phase."

"But we can't forget…?" said Yuri.

"Come on, that wasn't _that _bad!"

"Didn't you make me…?" said MC.

"That's enough!" Monika clicked her fingers.

Sayori blinked.

"What were we talking about?" she said.

"I have no idea," said Yuri. Monika cleared her throat.

"Yuri is a fairly common name is Japan," she said. "For boys and girls."

"And I'm not that kind of girl," said Natsuki. She grabbed a cupcake and took a bite "I'm a dignified woman seeder!"

"Excuse me?" said Yuri.

Natsuki swallowed the bite "Gah! I meant to say manga reader!"

"Those… don't sound similar in the slightest."

"Shut up, shut up, shut up!"

"Well, that's done!" said Monika. "So, what should we do now?"

"Uh… my sister?" said MC.

_Back in the real world._

Firelord dragged this strange new file into the folder where he kept Monika and her friends. He rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

"I wonder… what more can I do with these strange new files?"

_Meanwhile._

The doorbell was heard.

"Oh, that must be Firelord!"

"Oh, good!" MC and Monika walked to the door.

"Firelord! It's so nice to…"

"Firelord! I need you to…"

But Firelord wasn't there. Instead, there was a short, black-haired girl with yellow eyes.

"MC?" she said.

"SC?" said MC.

Firelord walked up from behind.

"Oh, so you know this SC girl!" he said. "That'll makes things much easier."

"Wait, who are you?" said SC.

"Ah yes, my name is Firelord. I suppose we might start with your initiation into the text file."

"Excuse me?"

"Wait!" said MC as Firelord snapped his fingers.

_A little bit later…_

SC clutched her legs to her chest as she rocked back and forth on the floor.

"Everything is a lie… everything is a file… everything is a game…"

"Is she gonna be okay?" said Sayori.

"Personally, I'm more concerned with MC," said Yuri.

MC was sitting beside her sister, utterly horrified by her current state but too concerned to look away.

"I've seen worse," said Monika.

"You mean like…"

"We don't talk about that."


	10. The Hot Springs episode

**Ah, another chapter! Sorry about the wait, I really need to get these things out faster, huh?**

**Monika: Have you tried the Pomodoro technique? It helps me a lot**

**Really? I'll have to try that...**

"Erm… MC?" Yuri said.

"Yeah, what is it, Yuri?" MC looked over his shoulder.

"What's going on with SC?"

"Hehe… Blood… catsuit… very slowly and painfully… kinky… sister…" SC spasmed violently. It had been at least an hour or so and she was still twitching. Everyone was almost scared to approach her.

Firelord scratched the back of his head.

"Erm… she read the reviews for this chapter. I forgot to turn off the psychic reviews for her,"

"Why do you keep doing this?" Yuri buried her face in her hands.

"Let's move on," MC started glancing at the reviews. "Looks like that guy forgave Monika for… what did she do again?"

"I have no idea," Yuri shrugged. "What would I do if Natsuki was in a catsuit? Well…"

"NYA!" Natsuki jumped out of seemingly nowhere, wearing a very tight and furry pink catsuit, completely with fluffy ears and makeshift paws.

Natsuki struck another cute pose as Yuri looked like an internally combusting tomato.

"So… cute…!" Yuri gasped and passed out on the spot. Natsuki stopped and looked very surprised.

"I didn't expect that to happen! But if she really thinks I'm that cute, go for broke," she said and looked at the reviews. "That's what you find hot about us? Then in that case…"

Natsuki wrapped her arm around Yuri's unconscious body and brought her up to hers. She ran her fingers through Yuri's long and delicate hair, caressing her elegant figure. She pressed her svelte body against her and moaned, feeling her sizable mounds press up against her chess. Her face blushing red, she ran her hands down her dips and curves in their bodies. "Are… are you aroused yet?"

Monika noticed both MC and Firelord blushing slightly. Firelord quickly chugged a random water bottle and wiped his brow. "Eh-hem… yes that's very good, Natsuki. You can stop now,"

Natsuki let go of Yuri and stretched.

"I gotta admit, making random people on the internet horny is really fun!"

"How bored do you have to be to do that?" Yuri raised an eyebrow. Natsuki sighed and glanced over at the review box.

"Okay… wow, that poem is pretty crazy." She scratched her chin and glanced over and Yuri's limp figure. "If Yuri were still conscious, she would probably say something along the lines of excellently capturing the thoughts and mindset of a suicidal person who views death as a comfort he cannot have."

"That's actually very good, Natsuki." Monika pointed out. "Maybe you and Yuri have been rubbing off each other,"

"Do these people only know how to write one tone and one genre?" Firelord sighed and then immediately remembered the other people in the room. "I'm sorry, that was rude."

"I'm not a sexual deviant, Tigercat!" Natsuki said.

"Says the girl wearing a catsuit and just lewdly hugged her unconscious friend." Monika smugly grinned.

"That barely scratched the ecchi zone! The rule for T rated stories is some violence, minor coarse language, and minor suggestive adult themes. M rated has non-explicit suggestive adult themes, references to some violence, or coarse language."

"How do you know all that stuff?" Firelord said as he started filling a bucket of water.

"The guidelines for the website, duh! You put it in the library,"

"I never put it in the… hold on a sec…"

Firelord glanced through the guidelines.

"Oh, my goodness, she's right! Paraphrased, but right!"

"So what?"

"It would seem that you can access other files via the internet… I wonder what I can do with this…" Firelord scratched his chin.

"Oh, let me try!" said Sayori. She scrunched her eyes tight and balled her fist and looked like she was straining something.

"Uh, Sayori?" said Monika. "I don't that's how you're supposed to…"

Suddenly, a pink muscular humanoid figure appeared floating behind Sayori.

"Huh?" said Natsuki. "Is that… A Stand?"

"Oh, sorry! I was reading JoJo earlier and I thought about Stands while I was straining."

The pink figure disappeared as Firelord started thinking to himself.

"Let me see…"

Firelord opened a browser and searched for a picture of a hot spring, before dragging it into his word processor.

All of a sudden, the six of them were inside of a rather luxurious looking hot spring.

"Amazing! Adding an image to the file creates whatever the image is! The possibilities are limitless!" Firelord laughed to himself.

"Great idea, Firelord!" said Yuri, grabbing SC by the shoulders. "I'm sure this will be just was SC needs to calm her nerves down," she looked like she was about to start undressing her but Natsuki tapped her on the shoulder.

"Uh, Yuri?" she indicated to Firelord and MC.

"Oh, we'll see ourselves out," said a blushing MC as he and Firelord slowly walked to the male section.

Sayori noticed Firelord with a light smirk and was about to snap his fingers again. She immediately rushed over.

"Oh no you don't!" she said. "You're not trying anything sneaky on my watch. California Girl!"

"Wait, Sayori, don't!"

MC and Firelord were immediately flung over the bamboo fence by Sayori's "Stand"

"Uh… was that a bit much?" said Sayori. Natsuki shook her head.

"No, if anything it wasn't enough. I've seen this setup a hundred times. No matter what we do, someone's going to peep on us, be it intentionally or inadvertently. Any precaution we take against that is completely justified."

"Well in that case…" Yuri pulled out an old-looking book and opened to a specific page. "Rtagh, clnacht, skitan, flgarhgcren!"

A row of slimy-looking tentacles sprouted out of the ground.

"There. These should keep any peeping toms at bay."

"What'cha got there?" said Sayori.

"The Necronomicon," Yuri held up the book. "It turns out creating books is a lot easier than actually writing what happens,"

"Well, that's convenient…" Sayori's Stand disappeared as she looked nervously at the writhing tentacles. "Uh… what exactly are those things?"

"if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you," Natsuki said.

"Huh?" said Sayori.

"It's a quote from Friedrich Nietzsche," said Yuri. "It means that if you wander too far into the unknown than you'll face consequences. In other words, "Do not ask, and you shall not come to harm,"

Sayori felt a few shivers fall down her spine as she began to take her clothes off.

Meanwhile, MC and Firelord were having a relaxing soak in the men's area.

"Ah, this is nice!" MC exclaimed. "It feels so great to get outside and do all kinds of fun stuff."

"It sure is. I would be doing things like that if not for the virus currently ravaging the world,"

"Wait, what?"

"Nothing…" Firelord whistled idly.

**Say, what's everyone been doing at home lately?**

"Speaking of which, these .chr files are truly incredible! Imagine if I added an audio file, or a video, or another game!"

"The possibilities are endless, at least from what you're saying. I'm sure everyone reading this already has tons of unique ideas," MC noted.

"Definitely. But that waits for the future. Now we enjoy the present."

"Exactly," MC started to close his eyes but caught the shape of Firelord making his way over to the wall.

"Heh…"

"Are you trying to peep?" MC's eyes widened.

"I'm not!" Firelord stated firmly. "I mean, one of us has too,"

"Huh? Why?"

Firelord leaned in closely.

"There's a reason I chose a hot spring. Besides helping settle your sister's mind, having a fanservice chapter is crucial for any aspiring manga or light novel writer. And I can't add a lemon to this story, Reki Kawahara style, so this is the best I can do!"

"Reki Kawahara? Oh, you mean chapter 16.5?" MC started blushing even further.

"Basically. So, one of us has to peep, by the law of anime and manga,"

_Meanwhile._

"This is so nice!" Sayori let out of a heavy sigh.

Natsuki kept glancing back and forth from Monika's curvature and Yuri's chest, all while blushing and examining her own figure.

"Say, Natsuki, what are you looking at?" Sayori leaned over.

"Nothing!"

"Natsuki, it's fine to feel inadequate about your body, or experience sexual desire," said Monika. "But can you not? You're making us uncomfortable,"

"I'm fine," Yuri said, smiling like it was no big deal.

"Hey look, SC stopped muttering!" said Sayori.

"She still has that dead-fish look in her eyes," Natsuki noted.

"I wonder what Firelord's doing…" Monika smirked.

"You know that's not his real body, right?" said Yuri. "That's just what he decided to make himself look like. He could look like anyone for that matter."

"Oh yeah," Natsuki scratched her chin. "What if he's some 40 something-year-old with a weird fetish?"

"Or a 13-year-old with a weird fetish?" said Yuri.

"Or a girl!" said Sayori.

Everyone gave her strange looks.

"What? It could be possible."

"Whatever they are, Firelord is still Firelord," Monika let out a dreamy sigh.

"Geez, someone's got it really bad," SC stated bluntly.

"Eh?!" was the collective response.

"What?" SC gave them all a strange look.

_Meanwhile._

"Is that SC?!" MC immediately jumped out of the water.

"Well, she's still conscious," Firelord's eyes were closed as MC was scrambling up a ladder.

"And, here we go," he muttered.

The second MC vaulted over the wall, one of the tentacles reached up and wrapped around his body.

"What the… hey! What's the big deal!" he exclaimed as all of the girls gasped and started covering themselves.

"What are _you _doing here?!" Yuri and Natsuki somehow both jumped into each other's arms, resulted in a rather hilarious scramble of limbs.

"Were you trying to… peep?" said Sayori, pulling a towel over herself.

"You're such a pervert, big bro!" SC stated as if nothing was weird about her sudden mental recovery.

"Uh… I…" MC stammered.

"California Girl!" Sayori's stand appeared and drew a large peppermint-colored pole out of nowhere. Before MC could react, he was smacked over the wall like a baseball.

"AAAAAAAAAGH!" MC screamed, before splashing into the water.

"Told you," Firelord stated.

"Easy for you to say…" MC blushed from both anger and embarrassment.

_Meanwhile…_

"SC?" said Sayori.

"Oh right, who exactly are all of you? Like, I get the whole being in a file thing, but who are you guys?"

"We're the literature club that your brother was in,"

"Oh yeah, I think he mentioned that once or twice…" she scratched her chin. "I already know you, Sayori,"

"Right… sorry about forgetting you from the displacement of files,"

"It's fine. What about you three?"

"Well, first we have Natsuki, always full of energy!" said Sayori.

"Sup," she said.

"She's also super cute, and she loves manga and baking!"

"Hey!"

"After that is Yuri. She's really deep and likes dark stuff!"

"I would elaborate that I enjoy Lovecraftian horror," Yuri noted as Sayori mostly ignored her.

"And finally, we have Monika, she's the club president. She's also really good at writing like Firelord so she can edit the text file and change reality as we know it! Erase memories, summon stuff, control people… wait a minute…"

Monika interrupted her.

"Technically all of us can do that. Hey, you can probably do it too!" Monika snapped her finger and summoned a washrag.

"It's nice to meet all of you," said SC. "Also, thanks for looking after my brother. I don't know if you've noticed, but he's kind of a dork."

"Oh, I've noticed…" Sayori looked almost spiteful for a moment, before springing back. "But he's still really fun to be around!"

_About an hour later…_

Following that incident, Natsuki figured out how to link the hot spring to one of the doors in the hallway. Despite the awkward part, everyone felt far more relaxed.

"Ah, that was nice," SC stretched her arms out.

"So… SC…" MC twiddled his fingers a bit.

"Yeah, bro?"

"How exactly are you… handling all of this?"

SC shrugged.

"I mean… this weird book place isn't _that _different from real life,"

"Oh right!" said Firelord. "We should get you a room!" he clicked his fingers and led SC away.

"I have to say, MC, you and your sister have a lot in common," said Natsuki.

"Well, I have been told that…" MC rubbed the back of his head. "But I kinda feel like we've been sort of distant lately,"

"What are you talking about?" said Sayori.

"This is a little embarrassing, but ever since we started high school, she and I have been spending less time together. I think it might have something to do with exhaustion, or maybe I just wanted to focus on… nerd stuff more,"

"That's… cold. Just really cold," said Natsuki. "I mean, I barely have any family, let alone that level of closeness…"

"Oh right, your dad," said Monika

"Well, I'm taking this opportunity to rekindle my relationship with her!" MC stated.

_Real-world._

Another message appeared on Firelord's screen from his antivirus.

"An unknown file has been detected; would you like to delete it?"

"Again?" he said to no one in particular.

He looked inside the game's folder, and found yet another file, labeled 'Natsuki_ .'

"Hm…" Firelord rubbed his chin and looked at the text file one last time in his word processor. Nodding in satisfaction, he hovered over to the notification and clicked "Delete."


End file.
